I have a 98 Dodge Ram 4 by 4 1500 with a Dana 44 front axle. I went to change upper ball joints. Autozone gave me the wrong ball joint went to press it in and stretched out the upper female taper . now I have the right ball joint but it just falls into the receiver Any suggestions on how I can fix that issue without buying a whole new axle . Thanks for the help

 

Can you weld the new one in? Maybe stitch weld it so as not to over heat the knuckle. Weld a small spot and let it cool then do another spot. Not sure if there might be a bushing of some sort you could find that would work. You may have to enlarge the hole a little more to fit a bushing in there. I know in some cases a bushuing is used to aid in the alignment process. Just a few thoughts.